Be Cool

Review By: John Disogra
JohnDisogra@TheCinemaSource.com

Los Angeles is a town built on Bull shit. If B.S. registered on the visible spectrum, L.A. would be brighter than Sirius. (ya know, the star???) Think about it people, it's the home of fake applause and the birthplace of fake breasts. A town of people employed mostly in an industry that rewards clever dieception and gives the highest praise and honors to those who spend their lives pretending to be someone and something else. So now, why would anyone want to portray this town in this way in the media; even if it may not be truly so? Because as depressing as it is, it makes for really good entertainment.

Be Cool uses the city of Los Angeles as another character in this film about the entertainment industry. One can’t help but feel like it is this desirable and glamorous place that is so horrible at the same time. Each character in the film represents a facet of the place which is what makes it so hysterical. Do not expect some plot line that would have you swept off your feet, to say for lack of a better phrase; in fact don’t even pay attention to it because at times it gets so cloudy it doesn’t even matter. However do go for the line up of big name individual actors in this project who hold their weight.

Forget Pulp Fiction, some will seek grounds for criticism just for a few common cast members and a really hot dance scene between 'you know who.' However the cast members manage to bring in laughs for their various reasons. In the follow up to Get Shorty, Chilli Palmer (John Travolta), is the clever ex-mobster turned entertainment mogul who seeks to switch out of the movie biz, and into the music biz, with the help of course of widow Edie Athens (Uma Thurman). The main conflict lies in saving her husbands record company by selling the talent of singer Linda Moon (Christina Milian). Of course she has some kind of binding to some low level thugs, see that plot thing again, and the movie lies in this struggle back and forth. However seeing The Rockas a song and dance gay body guard to racially confused Raji (Vince Vaughn) alone is worth the ticket prices tenfold. Cedric T.E. also as record producer Sin LaSalle, Ivy League educated African American who produces caricature rap group “Dub MD’s” never fails to bring in the laughs. André 3000 as Dabu, the leader of the “Dub’s” also comes through. Legend Harvey Keitel was a bit disappointing, but probably due more to bad casting. Danny De Vito’s return as director Martin Weir would be irrelevant had this movie not been a sequel.

All-in-all, this movie does deliver its comedy. Whether you laugh at the points in which they intended, its anecdotes, or at the shear ...